SEDG WICK SEDITION. 



463 



graduated at "West Point in 1837, in a class com- 

 prising Gens. Hooker, Brag;; aud Early. He was 

 appointed 2d lieutenant of artillery, aud served 

 against the Seininoles in Florida and subsequently 

 on the frontier during the Canada border troubles. 

 Having been made 1st lieutenant in 1839, he took 

 part in the Mexican war, at the siege of Vera Cruz, 

 the battles of Cerro Gordo, Churubusco, Molino 

 del Rey, and Chapultepee, and in the assault on 

 and capture of the City of Mexico. He was brevetted 

 successively captain and major for gallantry and 

 meritorious conduct. In 1849 he was promoted to 

 captain, and, in 1855, to major of the 1st cavalry, 

 with which he served in Kansas, being subsequently 

 transferred to the 2d cavalry, of which he was 

 lieutenant-colonel at the outbreak of the civil war. 

 In April, 1861, he was appointed colonel of the 

 4th cavalry, and in August was commissioned a 

 brigadier-general of volunteers anil assigned for 

 service in the army of the Potomac. In McClel- 

 lan's. Peninsular campaign of 1802, he commanded 

 a division of Stunner's corps, and took pan in the 

 siege of Yorktown and in the pursuit of Johnston. 

 He especially distinguished himself at the battle of 

 Fair Oaks, arriving, after a toilsome march, just in 

 time to decide the day. He took part in all the 

 engagements of the Seven Days' fight, and again 

 won honor at Savage's Station and Glendalc. At 

 Antietam he bore a conspicuous part, leading a 

 division and exposing himself fearlessly. Though 

 severely wounded, for two hours he would not allow 

 himself to Ixs taken from the field. Uelurnini; to 

 duty in December he was promoted major-general 

 of volunteers, and, iu Feb. 1863, put in command 

 of the Sixth corps. At the head of this corps, on 

 May 3, he stormed the heights of Fredericks hurir, 

 but with the heavy loss of 5000 men. Continuing 

 his march to effect a junction with the main army, 

 under Hooker, at Chaneellorsvilie, he was 

 checked in the afternoon at Salem Heights by the 

 troops that Lee was able to detach after repulsing 

 Hooker, and on the next morn ing when Lei- furl her re- 

 inforced these it was only by determined lighting SIM'I:- 

 wick could hold his ground. When darkness fell he 

 withdrew across the Rappahannock. (See CHAXCKL- 

 LOR3VILLE.) In the subsequent return into Mary- 

 land Sedgwick commanded the left wing of the Army 

 of the Potomac, as he did at the ensuing battle of 

 Gettysburg, Which be reached on the second day of the 

 lighting, alter making a forced march of 35 miles in 

 tin hours a feat nearly unparalleled. So severe was 

 the struggle that his corps was brought into action 

 without being allowed time (> rest. It was engaged, 

 siNo, in the third day's light and in the pursuit on 

 Julv 5. During tin- passage of the Rapidan, Nov. 

 7, IS'i:', he succeeded by adroit n.ovemcnls in cap- 

 turing an entire Confederate division. This service 

 Gen. Meade acknowledged in a general order. At the 

 battle of Rappahannock Station, Nov. 7, he com- 

 manded the Union right wing, and in the Wilder- 

 ness campaign, held the same position, under Grant, 

 exhibiting conspicuous gallantry in the sanguinary 

 battles of May 5 and 6, 1864. At Spottsylvania 

 Court House (May 9), while placing some pieces in 

 position in the entrenchments, in front of the Court 

 House, he was struck in the head by a bullet fired 

 by a Confederate sharpshooter and instantly killed, 

 liis loss caused the most profound grief not only 

 in his own command by which he was especially 

 beloved (and which in respect of discipline and 

 morale he had made one of the most efficient in the 

 field), but throughout the whole army to which his 

 many noble qualities had endeared him. He had 

 been offered the command of the Army of the Poto- 

 mac just before it was conferred on Gen. Meade, but 

 his modesty led him to decline it. He commanded 

 it, however, more than once temporarily in Gen. 

 Mead-'* absence. A monument, cast from cannon 



' captured by the Sixth corps, was erected to his 

 memory at the Military Academy at West Point iu 



' 1868. ' (J. H.) 



SEDGWICK, THEODORE (1746-1813), jurist, was 

 descended from Robert Sedgwick, one of the settlers 



| of Charlestown, Mass., iu 1635, who afterwards, 



' while engaged in the expedition against Jamaica 



' in 1656, received a commission as major-general 

 from Cromwell. Part of the family had gone to 

 Hartford, Conn., and here Theodore was born in 

 May, 1746. He entered the Yale College, and 

 having been rusticated lor some offence did not 



i return. In 1766 he was admitted to the bar and 

 practised at Great Barrington and afterwards :\t 

 Sheffield, Mass. He was" an ardent patriot and 

 served in the expedition to Canada as au aid to 

 Gen. Thomas. He frequently represented Sheffield 

 in the State Legislature, and in 1785 was a delegate 

 to the Continental Congress. His services in sup- 

 pressing Shay's Rebellion were important. In 171-8 

 the Massachusetts Convention, under his guidance, 

 ratified the Federal Constitution. In the same year 

 he was speaker of the assembly, and was elected a 

 member of the first Congress under the new consti- 

 tution. Here he was conspicuous as a Federalist 

 and a laborious statesman. In 1796 he was elected 

 to the U. S. Senate, of which he was made president 

 pro i' nt. in the next year. In 1799 he returned to 

 the lower house, where he was chosen speaker. At 

 the close of this term he was made judge of the 

 Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and so continued 

 till his death at Boston, Jan. 24, 1813. Sedgwick 

 rendered excellent service in Congress, bur, his 



, fame rests upon his work in the interpretation of 

 the State laws in behalf of liberty. In 17SO in a 

 fugitive slave case he obtained from a State Court 

 a decision which practically brought slavery to an 



I end. Afterwards while judge he strengthened the 



; decision by pronouncing that " one man could not 

 have legitimate property in another." 



His son, THKODORE SEDGWICK (1781-1839), was 

 born at Sheffield, Mass., Dec. 31, 1781. He graduated 

 at Yale College iu 1798, and having studied law 



j with his father, was admitted to the bar in 1801. 

 He practised at Albany. N. Y., for many years 

 and in 1K-J2 removed to his father's estate at Stock- 

 bridge, Mass. He was elected to the Massachusetts 

 legislature and earnestly advocated the construction 

 of a railroad from Boston to Albany. He was a 

 Democrat in politics, opposed to slavery, and an 

 advocate of free trade. Soon after completing a 

 political speech lie died of apoplexy at Pitlstield, 

 Nov. 7, l*x!'.). His published works were Uinl.i 

 t'i mi/ I'IHIII; ii-i/nifi i dH'Jfi), and Public (iiid 1'rimte 

 .-./// (3 vols., l.S:!6-39>. The later volumes con- 

 tain his observations on the continent of Europe in 

 1836. His wife, Susan Ridley Sedgwiek, was a 

 daughter of Gnv. William Livingston of New Jersey, 

 and wrote many works of fiction for the young. 



Their son, THEODOIUC SKI* MVICK ' 181 1-1859), was 

 born at Albany, Jan. 27. 1811. He graduated at 

 Columbia College in 1829, and was admitted to the 

 bar in 1833. He then became an attache of the U. 

 S. Legation at Paris. Returning in 1835 he practised 

 law in New York city, was president of the Crystal 

 Palace Association in 1852, and in 1858 was U. S. 

 district attorney. He died at Stockbridge, Mass., 

 Dec. 8, 1859. He published a Memoir of Gov. Wil- 

 liam Livingxtfrn (1833) ; a Treatise on the Measure of 

 Damages (1847), and many legal, literary and polit- 

 ical addresses. 



SEDITION. The distinctive recognition of the 



principle that the people of the com- 



hce Vol. nuin jty have a right to mould its govern- 



(p fiWAm nient to their interests and desires, which 



Rep.). existing as a political tendency in the 



early colonial institutions of this country, 



came to a distinct expression at the Revolution, 



